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Chile: Developments of legal actions against former officers, officials and supporters of Pinochet implicated in rights abuses during his rule (2002 - present)

For a general overview of the status of legal actions against former officials and supporters of Pinochet, please refer to Section 1 of Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002 and Human Rights Watch's World Report 2003.

In April 1978, General Pinochet issued an amnesty law benefiting members of the military who had committed human rights abuses between April 1973 and April 1978 (IPS 8 Jan. 2002).

Judge Mario Garrido Montt, who was appointed in January 2002 as the new president of the Supreme Court, said "the pending cases of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship were a thorny problem" (ibid.). He added that "with regards to the judiciary, all of the necessary efforts are being made to live up to the aspirations of society" (ibid.). Yet, as of January 2002, the courts had not resolved the case of 1,198 people who had "disappeared" during Pinochet's era (ibid.).

Approximately 500,000 people were tortured during Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, but there is still a feeling that "the torturers continue to enjoy impunity, and the victims have received no reparations of any kind" (ibid. 19 June 2002). Reporting in 2002, Inter Press Service noted that "to date, few torturers have been publicly exposed in Chile, and even fewer have suffered any consequences due to their past" (ibid.). The former torturers are enjoying immunity since despite the many lawsuits filed by the victims and their families, many of the former torturers' cases are not being considered by the courts (ibid.).

Survivors of rights violations during the Pinochet era are seeking legal, moral and material reparations through the Ethical Commission Against Torture, which brings together 13 human rights groups and several high profile human rights advocates and is lobbying for a law to grant reparations (ibid.). One of the Commission's activists, Claudio Escobar, said the Commission wants to have torture recognized as "a crime that has been practiced on a massive scale" in Chile (ibid.). The Commission also wants to see a compensation system established which would not only restore former political prisoner's civil and political rights, which were limited by military and civil courts due to confessions made under torture, but also give torture survivors medical and psychological treatment (ibid.). In addition, the activists are pushing to have former torturers banned from government jobs and demanding the full enforcement of the UN Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was signed by Pinochet while he was in power in Chile (ibid.).

After General Gabrielli was accused in February 2001 of being a torturer by three former political prisoners, the Minister of Interior, Jos Miguel Insulza, criticized the accusation brought against the General, telling victim organizations and human rights organizations to limit their legal actions to cases of disappearances and people killed during the Pinochet reign (ibid.). In 2002, the Latin American Regional Reports noted that

according to sources close to President Ricardo Lagos, the Chilean government is discussing a deal with victim-support groups that would bar any more prosecutions. ... The government is offering to financially compensate victims of the Pinochet regime (those tortured or illegally detained, as well as families of the disappeared) if all charges are dropped against former military personnel. The deal is also likely to include the release of political prisoners, such as guerrillas (3 Sept. 2002).

More recent updates on the deal the government is offering could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

During 2002 and 2003, several accounts of legal proceedings against former military officers have been published in press reports. Examples found in the sources consulted follow:

In January 2002, nine former agents of the secret police of the Pinochet era and retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel were indicted in connection with the last five forced disappearances committed in the Pinochet era (IPS 8 Jan. 2002; Latinamerica Press 11 Feb. 2002). General Wenzel, who was the director of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), was accused of organizing the abduction of five presumed militants of the insurgent Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) (IPS 8 Jan. 2002). In connection with the same case, arrest warrants were issued for Major Alvaro Corbalan, Colonel Kranz Bauer, Captain Luis Sanhueza and six other former CNI agents, all of whom were retired (ibid.). Salas Wenzel, Corbalan and the committed eight other former CNI agents were already involved in other human rights abuses committed during the Pinochet reign and were therefore under arrest in military installations (ibid.). In addition, Salas Wenzel and Corbalan were being held for their involvement in "Operation Albania" during which the CNI murdered 12 alleged members of the FPMR in June 1987 (ibid.). On top of the new charges he was facing, "Corbalan had already been sentenced to life in prison for the 1983 murder of carpenter Juan Alegria, and is facing a similar sentence for his role in the February 1982 murder of social democratic trade unionist Tucapel Jimenez by the CNI" (ibid.).

In the case of union leader Tucapel Jimenez's murder, 12 former officers were convicted in August 2002 (Latinamerica Press 12 August 2002). The sentences varied from life in prison for retired Major Carlos Herrera Jimenez, a ten-year sentence for retired General Ramses Alvarez and shorter sentences for the other accused (ibid.; Latin American Regional Reports 3 Sept. 2002; IPS 5 Aug. 2002).

In October 2002, two retired chief-of-security officers who served Pinochet – majors Arturo Silva Valdes and Jaime Torres Gacitua – were indicted for the 1992 murder of the government chemist, Eugenio Berrios, in Uruguay (ibid. 18 Oct. 2002; Weekly News Update on the Americas 20 Oct. 2002). Berrios worked for the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) (ibid.; IPS 18 Oct. 2002). Several other people were also indicted in the same case on charges of obstruction of justice (ibid.). These people include: retired general Hernan Ramirez Rurange, former director of the army intelligence service known as DINE; captain Pablo Rodriguez Marquez; retired non-commissioned officer Raul Lillo; and retired general Eugenio Covarrubias, another former DINE director (ibid.)

More recently, in 2003, the founder and chief of the Pinochet regime's secret police, General Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, and four of his subordinates, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Marcelo Moren Brito, Ferdinando Lauriani Maturana and Gerardo Godoy Garcia, were convicted for having confined in 1975 a government opponent who was later said to have disappeared (AFP 15 Apr. 2003). The sentences they received ranged from five years to 15 years of imprisonmentContreras, Brigadier Pedro Espinoza, Generals Raul Iturriaga, Jose Zara and Jorge Iturriaga were all indicted in the murder of Prats and his wife (AP 25 Feb. 2003).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (APF). 15 April 2003. "Nouvelle condamnation pour le chef de la police secrète de Pinochet." (NEXIS)

Associated Press (AP) Worldstream. 25 February 2003. Eduardo Gallardo. "Officers Charged in Assassination of Retired Chilean Army Commander" (NEXIS)

Inter Press Service (IPS) [Santiago]. 18 October 2002. "Rights-Chile: Pinochet's Chief Guards Indicted in Uruguay Killing." (NEXIS)

_____. 5 August 2002. Gustavo Gonzalez. "Rights-Chile: Pinochet-Era Officers Jailed in Unionist Killing." (NEXIS)

_____. 19 June 2002. Gustavo Gonzalez. "Rights-Chile: General Indicted for 1987 Disappearances." (NEXIS)

_____. 8 January 2002. Gustavo Gonzalez. "Rights-Chile: Activists Demand Reparations for Torture Victims." (NEXIS)

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 26 August 2002. "Chile: Torture Victims Seek Reparations." (NEXIS)

_____. 12 August 2002. "Chile: Officers Sentenced to Prison." (NEXIS)

_____. 11 February 2002. Vol. 34, No. 3. "Chile: Another General Behind Bars." (NEXIS)

Latin American Regional Reports: Southern Cone Report [London, UK]. 11 March 2003. "Past Abuses Continue to Haunt; Chile Indicts Former Police Chief; Argentine Record Under Fire." (Latin American Newsletters/NEXIS)

_____. 3 September 2002. "Human Rights." (Latin American Newsletters/NEXIS)

Weekly News Update on the Americas [New York]. 20 October 2002. No. 664. "Chile: Two Arrests in Berrios Case." (Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York/NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB Databases

World News Connection

Internet sites, including:

Amnesty International

BBC News

European Country of Origin Information Network

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

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